Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-12-26


the Christ who, though he might
have been welcomed into life by princes,
and taken his first infentile slumber amid
! Tyrisn plush and csnopied couches, and
ripping waters from royal sQueducts
dripping into basins of ivory and pearl,
chose to be born on the level with cows
horn, or camel's hoof, or dogs NOS
tril, that he might be the alienation OF
brutal suffering as well as
THE REDEEMER OF NAN.
Standing then, as l imagine now | do,
10 that Bethlehem night with an infant
Christ on the one side and the speeches.
creatures of God ON the other, / cry !:
Look out how you strike the rowel into
that horses side. Take Off that curbed
bit from that bleeding mouth. Remove
that saddle from that raw back. Shoot
not for fun-that bird Is too small for
food. Forget not to put water into the
cage OF that canary. Throw out some
crumbs to those birds caught too far
north in the winters inclemency. Arrest
that man who Is making that one horse
draw load heavy enough for three.
Rush in upon that scene where boys are
torturlug Cat or transfxipg butterfly
and grasshopper. Drive not OF that old
AocAa SOA ACI GCSt ~ uOtuC1 .
cradle and under her wing there may be
three or four prima donnas Of the sky in
training. And in your families and in
your schools teach the coming generation
more mercy than the present generation
has ever shown, and in this marvellous
Bible picture OF the Nativity, while you
point out to them the angel, show them
also the camel, and while they hear the
celestial chant let them also hear the
cows moan. No more did Christ showi >
terest in the botanical world when he sal
&c )nsider the lilies" than he showed
sympathy for the pathological when he
said, "Behcld the fowls of the air." and
the quadrupedal world when he allowed
himself to be called in one place lion
and in another place lamb. Meanwhile,
may the Christ of the Bethlehem cattle
pen have mercy on the suffering stock
yards that are preparing diseased and
fevered meat for
OUR AMERICAN HOUSEHOLDS.
Behold also in this Bible scene how on
that Christmas night God honored child.
b cd. Christ might have made his first
visit to our world in a cloud, IS he will
descend on his next visit in cloud. In
what a chariot of illumined vapof he
might have rolled down the sky escorted
by mounted cavalry with lightning of
drawn sword. Ejah had carrisge of
fire to take him up, why not Jesus car
rage of fire to fetch i'm down?
Or, over the arched bridge Of
q rainbow the Lord might have
descended. Or Christ might have had
his mortality built upon earth out of the
dust of the garden, as was Adam, in full
manhood at the start without tho intro
ductory feebleness Of infancy. No, no!
Childhood was to be honored by that ad-
vent. He must have child's light limbs,
and a child's dimpled hand, and child's
beamipg eye, and cnlld's fiaxen hair,
and babYhood was to be honOred for all
time to come, and q cradle WAS to mean
more than grave. Mighty God! May
The reflection of that one child's
face be seen in sll infsntile faces.
Enough have all those fathers and moth
ers on hand if they have child in the
house. A throne, g Gro Wn. q scepter, d
kingdom under charge. Be careful how
you strike him on the head, jarriug the
brain. What you say to him Will be cen
tennial and millennial, and hundred
years and thousand years will not stop
the echo and re-echo. Do not say, eft is
only a child" Rather say, "It is only
an immortal" 1t Is only masterpiece
Of Jehovah. 1t is only being that shall.
outlive sun, and moon, and star, and ages
quadrillenniel. God has infinite re-
sources and he can give presents of great
value, but when he wants to give the
richest possible gift to household he
LOOKS around all the worlds and ell the
universe and then gives a child. The
greatest present that God ever gave our
world he gave about 1887 years ago, and
he gave it on Christmas night, and it
was of such value that Heaven adjourned
for recess and came down and
BROKE THROUGH THE CLOUDS
to look at it, Yea, in all ages God has
honored childhood. He makes almost
every picture a failure unless there be q
Child either playing on the floor, or look
ing through the VIII dow or seated On the
/ Up gazing into the face of It's mother. 1t
Was q child IN N,aman's kitchen that told
the great Syrian warrior where he might
60 and get cured of the leprosy, which at
MS seventh plunge in the Jordan was left
st the bottom of the river. II wss to the
cradle of leaves in which child wss laid
rocked by the Nile that God called the at
tention of history. It was SICK child
that evoked Cbrist's curative symp:thies.
1T WAS child that Christ set ia the midst
of the squabblipg disciples to teach the
lesson Of huniiy. We are informed
that wolf ana leopard and lion snail De
yet so domestlcsted that a little child
shall lead them. A child decided Waterloo,
showing the army of Blucher how they
could take short cut through the fields
when, if the old road had been followed,
the Prussian general would have come
up too late to save the destinies OF Eu-
rope. II was child that decided Gettys
burg, he having overheard two Confed-
crate generals in s conversation in which
they decided to march for Gettysburg in
stead of Harrisburg, and this reported to
Governor Curtin, the Federal forces
started to meet their opponents at Gettys-
burg. And the child OF to-day is to de-
eide all the great battles, make sill the
laws, settle ell the destinies and usher in
the worlds salvation or destruction.
Men, women, nations, all earth and all
heaven, behold the child. Is there any
velvet so soft as chiid's cheek? Is
there any sky so blue as child's eyer Is
there any music SO sweet as the child's
voice? Is there any plume so wavy as
child's hair?
Notice also that In this Bible night